About Mercy Corps: Global Headquarters:

From Our Executives

Mercy Corps CEO Neal Keny-Guyer at the Skidmore Fountain Building site in Portland's Old Town Chinatown neighborhoood. Photo: L.E. Baskow, Portland Tribune

Most people know Mercy Corps for its relief work in the wake of emergencies like the Indian Ocean tsunami, Hurricane Katrina and, more recently, the earthquake in China. Mercy Corps strives to help communities help themselves, whether they are recovering from disaster, from conflict or from economic collapse.

What many people don’t know is that Mercy Corps also works here in the Pacific Northwest. For years, Mercy Corps has wanted to engage the local community in its mission more fully. We are pleased that our new global headquarters will finally let us do so. We are devoting the entire ground floor to our work in the Pacific Northwest, with two new community resources.

The Mercy Corps Action Center is a public, interactive space dedicated to educating and galvanizing visitors — especially young people — to take action on issues of local and global poverty.

Mercy Corps Northwest, Mercy Corps’ local economic development program, offers business development services, loans and other resources to thousands of low-income entrepreneurs in Oregon and Washington. With this project, we’re on the brink of something big for Portland.

There’s a special synergy between Mercy Corps and its hometown, fired by Portland’s unique civic spirit. Look around this city, and it becomes clear: Portlanders have ideas about an ideal world — and we put them to work.

Like the people of the city, Mercy Corps also has a vision for a better world: one without poverty, hunger, suffering or oppression.

It’s a vision you have told us you want to be more involved in. That’s why Mercy Corps is moving to a more accessible, prominent location in Portland.

President Nancy Lindborg (left) talks with Robert Amin during a meeting with Mercy Corps team members in Kurmuk, Sudan. Photo: Rodrigo Ordonez/Mercy Corps

This move is more than a physical relocation. It’s an affirmation of Mercy Corps’ affinity with this city, and of a commitment to making the global local for people in the Pacific Northwest. The move will enhance Portland’s culture of putting good ideas into action. It will inspire our young people to be engaged citizens and leaders, in our city and beyond.

It’s a move that can truly change our world.

This global headquarters is a landmark undertaking for Mercy Corps, made possible thanks to significant local support. The Portland Development Commission (PDC) in particular helped Mercy Corps find a new headquarters site and access the tax credits and other public funding that made it the most cost-effective option. PDC and other local partners recognize the positive impact Mercy Corps has here and its potential to do even more good. Mercy Corps will also raise $10 million in private support for the headquarters project.

We hope that you, too, will see the benefits and opportunities that Mercy Corps offers the city. Change starts here.